Cholecystogastrocolonic fistula with intrahepatic abscess: a rare complication of biliary stone disease

Abstract

A 52-year-old woman exhibited both a cholecystogastrocolonic fistula and intrahepatic abscess. Biliary-enteric fistulas are unusual complications of gallstone disease, and multiple, complex fistulas are extremely uncommon. Hepatic abscesses are also unusual complications of gallstone disease. The combination of a complex biliary-enteric fistula and hepatic abscess arising from gallstone disease has not been reported. In our patient, surgery was prompted by the hepatic abscesses; the fistula was not recognized preoperatively. We elected to resect gallbladder, gastric antrum, and transverse colon en bloc with primary closure of the gastric defect and, because the colon had not been "prepped," we created a right transverse colostomy and left mucus fistula. Under ideal circumstances, the anatomy of biliary fistulas is characterized preoperatively and managed definitively with a single procedure.